On the eve of the start of the 2012 Giro d'Italia, Herning, Denmark rolled out the pink carpet for the 22 teams which will take part in the race. The 95th edition of the Italian tour gets underway on Saturday with a flat, fast 8.7km prologue that winds through the Danish town.
The teams were presented to the fans, with riders being led to the stage along the stretch of pink pavement behind a Danish cargo trike, commonly used by businesses in this bicycle-centric country.
New defending champion Michele Scarponi stood aside his fellow Giro champion teammate Damiano Cunego as the Lampre-ISD team was led to the podium.
Frank Schleck, a late addition to the RadioShack-Nissan roster, was the focus of much attention as he arrived to the stage, as was Danish prologue hopeful Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Barracuda) and Danish general manager of Saxo Bank, Bjarne Riis.
Earlier in the day, riders were allowed to preview the prologue course while the streets were closed to traffic. But Garmin-Barracuda's Peter Stetina, who was apparently on course before the closure, was hit by a car during his reconnaissance. He was uninjured.
Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli) will be the first rider down the ramp at 3:40pm local time. The full list of Giro prologue start times is available here.
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